Symbolic Dolls and Life’s Dreams

Certain times in my life I receive calls to appraise a certain type of object. In the last three weeks, I have had two calls for two major doll collections of hundreds of dolls each. Those who read my articles know I am frightened of dolls, and when I attend an appraisal of a doll collection and see all those lifeless faces and immobile eyes on folding tables, I dream about dolls for a night or two.

A doll in a dream blends tenderness, family heirloom thoughts, and strangeness all at once. In some cases, such as the doll collected by EE from South Africa, there is a difference between a doll as a toy and a doll as a sacred object, which this is.

EE has a doll from the Ndebele people, a prominent Bantu-speaking ethnic group in South Africa, located in the area between Zimbabwe and South Africa, a division of the Nguni peoples in historic times, such as the Zulu and the Xhosa, who settled in the Transvaal in the 16th and 17th century. The Ndebele formed in the migration in the 19th century to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

The people are patriarchal, centered around family homesteads called kraals, and specialize in cattle herding and maize farming. One of the ancestral traditions of the women of the tribe is the creation of these beautiful abstract dolls that represent certain important moments in female lives, such as an initiation doll, a bride doll (draped with beads over her face), or a sangoma doll (a doll which represents a diviner with her contact to ancestral spirits: she is a protector of society, therefore allowed to have firm opinions and judgments), or a modern creation: a Rasta doll.

EE’s doll is a ceremonial sangoma doll who herself indicates the desire for marriage and is used in courtship rituals: a suitor would place this doll on the threshold of his intended’s family hut, indicating his intention to propose marriage. These ceremonial dolls are grown women with round, individual sculpted breasts with beadwork.

On the DeeBeeGee’s Virtual Black Doll Museum site, I read that a similar Ndebele doll is the “Linga Koba” female doll, the “long-tears doll,” given to a middle-aged mother after her teenage son’s initiation rite as he becomes a man. Dolls created by the Ndebele are all one of a kind. I found some beautiful comparable sales on the websites of Indigo Arts Gallery in Philadelphia and DeeBeeGee’s Virtual Black Doll Museum.

This is the ceremonial doll which likely figured in many a girl’s dream throughout Ndebele culture; a doll which preordained marriage and was kept in the house to encourage fertility.

A sense of permanence is implied by the sheer size of the doll at 45 inches tall; a handcrafted sculptural work of art with detailed fiber and beadwork ornamentation, handcrafted by Ndebele women only. The tall, conical-shaped doll with a round, ball-shaped head marked an initiation into marriage through courtship. She is constructed of a rigid core wrapped in plant fiber, ornamented with geometric seed beads, making up hair, necklaces, and fringes. The implied costume represents her status and holds meaning: you will notice she has breasts but no feet!

Interestingly, her face has a division line down the middle where you might expect a nose to be, and her neck is long and often ornamented by those copper and brass neck rings worn by tribeswomen to stretch their necks, as a long neck is a sign of beauty.

EE collected this in the area formerly known as Zulu territory in South Africa, and EE also brought back a beaded, intricate bride or wedding apron created upon sheepskin, worked with glass beads in an abstract design. 

Back to my dream of this doll: it triggered childhood memories of visiting the Seminole Nation when I was a kid and collecting a lady doll in the 1970s made of cloth and beadwork. It has also stirred some adult anxieties related to control, outward appearances, and becoming older.

A ceremonial doll who is a grown female figure is a doll that is “watched” by girls as a role model in the performance of a role – in this case, through courtship and marriage – which should be approached slowly and with dignity. A doll such as this holds a secret, is a mask, presents an ideal, and as a ritual object is on “display,” used in storytelling, as education, as an emblem of continuity and the dignity of one’s female ancestors. The doll is a 20th century version of an ancient craft and is valued at $500.